Working in a functional medicine clinic caring for mold toxic patients will quickly convince you that mold toxins affect our immune systems. On a daily basis we see patients suffering from yeast overgrowth, repeated viral infections, Lyme or other tick born infections who underneath it all have mold toxicity. Seeing this hundreds of times leaves no doubt, but the broader medical world wants some research proof, some evidence. For that reason, I offer some evidence in this review that at least Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), ochratoxin A (OTA), and deoxynivalenol (DON) disrupt mammalian immune systems leading to symptoms and disease.
This review in the journal, Toxins, by Yuhang Sun, Yuqi Song, Miao Long, and Shuhua Yang explains the bidirectionality of mycotoxins in regards to our immune system. The full article will lead you into the weeds of immunology pathways, but an overview provides all the proof you need. Basically, depending on the concentration of the mycotoxin exposure and the length of time one is expose to the mycotoxin, the immune system responds in different ways. This seems rudimentary, but the implications are both intriguing and clinically important.
First, for those new to the world of mold toxicity, mold are simply fungi, microscopic organisms that grow together to produce structures visible to the human eye. Their main role in the ecosystem is one of degradation, breaking down dead organic matter into simple compounds that can be reused by other organisms. In short, they recycle stuff. In the process of this recycling, they fight for food, water, and space with the rest of the microscopic and macroscopic world.
To defend themselves and maintain their access to food and water, they secrete chemicals which kill other molds or bacteria. These are usually called mycotoxins. Some of these mycotoxins have been turned into antibiotics like penicillium or even chemotherapy drugs. Other mycotoxins induce disease in humans or other organisms. For the well-behaved molds, we may sneeze at the allergies they trigger. However, for those molds which produce harmful toxins, a multitude of symptoms can develop when susceptible individuals are expose. A large number of those symptoms begin with the immune dysfunction that mold toxins produce.
In this review, the authors lay out the stories of research on aflatoxin, ochratoxin A, and deoxynivalenol in regards to their immune effects. The study abstract summaries their findings with:
“Their specific action mechanisms include three aspects: (1) mycotoxin exposure directly promotes the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms; (2) mycotoxins produce toxicity, destroy the integrity of the mucosal barrier, and promote inflammatory response, thereby improving the susceptibility of the host; (3) mycotoxins reduce the activity of some specific immune cells and induce immune suppression, resulting in reduced host resistance.”
Let’s walk through these slowly. First, several studies have demonstrated that these mycotoxins can increase the growth of some pathogens. They have looked at in vitro studies where adding the mycotoxins to a test tube increased the numbers of viruses, bacteria, or parasites. This was just a first step, and other researchers demonstrated that the same increase in pathogen growth could occur inside experimental animals like mice. There were a variety of mechanisms described by which this increased pathogen group could occur.
Second, the mycotoxins themselves could trigger inflammatory responses and therefore symptoms even without the help of microbial pathogens. In triggering this inflammatory, they could disrupt the mucosal barrier in our bodies such as in the respiratory tract, the GI tract, or the genito-urinary tract. This increases the susceptibility of an organism to an invading infection. The inflammation response to mold toxins was more prominent in shorter exposures and with lower doses.
Third, under different conditions, the mycotoxins could induce immune suppressions. At higher concentration exposures or longer durations of exposure, the immune system was more often suppressed. This suppression meant that our normal immune system could not as easily fight off pathogens which were attempting to establish an infection. Aflatoxin and ochratoxin were particularly effective at doing this.
The paper gets into a lot deeper details on the exact mechanisms explaining these observed effects. These findings are therefore more than just hypothetical correlations; they are solid proof that mycotoxins are playing a role in immunological health. While the studies focused more on non-human animal, especially in agricultural settings, the evidence is clear that we in human medicine must take mold toxins seriously in caring for our patients.
Helping those with mold toxicity restore healthier, more abundant lives means understanding it ourselves and being able to educate others. Sharing these research findings helps us all to strive for this goal.
Original Article:
Sun Y, Song Y, Long M, Yang S. Immunotoxicity of Three Environmental Mycotoxins and Their Risks of Increasing Pathogen Infections. Toxins (Basel). 2023 Mar 2;15(3):187. doi: 10.3390/toxins15030187. PMID: 36977078; PMCID: PMC10054902.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.